Royai Week 2022 Fruits and Roots Day 3: Picture Prompt
Word Count: 596
Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl
Rating: T
Characters: Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye
Warning:
Summary: Riza's nightmares are worse in Ishval. Sometimes, they feel like they leave real consequences.
Notes: The picture in question looks as follows: It is the back of a woman who is facing away from the viewer. Her hair is pulled over one shoulder. She seems to have a shirt on that has a V in the back with crisscrossing straps across it. Down the middle of her back is a black vertical slit. Coming out of it is an arm from the hand to the elbow. The hand is grasping what seems to be a long, smooth, red knife.
Picture Prompt
The night air was cool, which was a contrast to the hot air of the day. It felt good to Riza, especially with the breeze that was blowing. She leaned on the edge of the wall that went around the roof and closed her eyes, letting the breeze ruffle her hair. She let the quiet surround her and just let herself be in that moment.
"What are you doing up here?"
The question was asked gently, but it still surprised Riza, and she turned slightly to look over her shoulder at Roy.
"…couldn't sleep," she said after a moment.
He softly padded over towards her, his footsteps making little noise on the roof. "Is your back hurting you again?" he asked her as he came up beside her.
Riza shifted and sighed. "Yeah."
"I can get the oil again."
She shook her head. "No. I don't think it will help."
Roy was quiet for a moment longer. "Something else is bothering you," he said.
Riza said nothing.
He reached over, put his hand over hers, and she sighed.
"It's… it's this place, I think," she said, nodding her head towards the buildings and the sands below them. "I look at it and I think, what about all those people I killed? What about the ones that were still left alive, or that I enabled to be captured? What about the ones that I enabled you to kill or wound? I think about them, I think about how many of them were probably dragged off, given to Marcoh, ended up as the stone. I think about it, and it's like… it's like there's something stabbing me in the back. And when I dream, what I see is a hand coming out of my back, a knife that's the stone held in it, ready to stab me in the back."
She sighed heavily. "I know that it's just a dream, but when I wake up, I feel like I've been stabbed right where you burned me. It's in my head, but it still hurts, and I need to get up and move around to try to shake it."
"But?" Roy prompted her after a moment. He always could tell when she was holding something back.
"But," she said with another sigh, "the guilt remains. I know not all of this is my fault, but it just feels like so much of it is." She shook her head. "It just won't let up."
Roy moved, shifting to where he was standing behind her, and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. She knew that he understood what she was feeling, just the same as he understood that she knew what she was feeling wasn't all true. They both knew, intellectually, that they carried more guilt than what they were responsible for. However, they both knew that it didn't make the guilt any less.
After a few minutes, he gently tugged on her. "Come on," he said softly. "Let's get back to bed. We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow."
Riza nodded, and let him pull her along, and arm still about her shoulders as they made their way back to the door that would lead the off of the roof.
"Roy?"
"Hm?"
"What were you doing up?"
"…I had a nightmare too."
"Ah."
"Come on. We'll get inside, go back to bed, and it can be your turn to comfort me."
"Of course. Just know that Hayate will try to help too."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."